RESTAURANTS and the Mafia

There is a myth that Mafiosi sit with their backs to the wall at all times. An old Mafia custom of drilling a hole in a wall, shotgun-size, long ago discouraged such safety tactics. More commonly, Mafiosi will make reservations at a restaurant and on entering ask that their table be changed-as a safety precaution to throw off any well-laid assassination plans.

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OMERTA: Mafia rule of silence

Omerta. Translated simply it means "manliness." It is not manly to be an informer, to tattle to the law or outsiders. A man who sings or squeals is a rat. Rats get killed. Thus many a bullet-riddled hood dies coughing up blood but refusing to tell the law who has gunned him down. Underworld underlings are required to go like "men," and rely on their colleagues to avenge their deaths.

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MAFIA: The Origins of the Mafia

Its roots beginning before the discovery of America.ÝThe term Mafia created in 1282 is an anagram, which stands for ěMortČ alla Francia Italia Anelia.î Translated from Italian this means Death to the French is Italyís Cry.ÝThis saying originated in Sicily, which has been invaded numerous times since the 9th century.

As a result of these invasions the Sicilians organized themselves into a secret society that had a leader from each city known as Don.ÝThese men admitted into the secret society took an oath of loyalty. To protect the citizens of Sicily was the goal of this secret society and they stole and collected protection money from the rich, which bought needed food to the Sicilian people.ÝWhen the need for protection against invasions declined the secret society found itself becoming corrupted and more and more the Mafia become self-serving, exploiting the Sicilians rather than protecting them.

These members of the secret society or Mafia found themselves fleeing Sicily in the early 1900s, America was one of their destinations reestablishing themselves and form what would become known as La Costra Nostra.

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ALPHONSE CAPONE, "Scarface Al" (1899-1947): Chicago crime leader

His name-Alphonse Capone-is synonymous worldwide with "Chicago gangster." There were men who did far more than Al Capone to foster organized crime in America, but his remains Public Enemy Number One.

By instinct Capone was a heartless, mindless murderer. The gun, young Capone believed, solved all. Yet by the time he was 26 Capone was transformed from a mindless killer into a shrewd criminal executive, bossing an enormous payroll and charged with keeping criminal rewards flowing. At that tender age he had become the most powerful crime boss of the time and he could-and did-boast he "owned" Chicago.

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NO HANDS Rule: Mob code of conduct

Adopted by various Mafioso leaders since about 1930, the "no hands rule" forbids any mob member from physically attacking another. The purpose of the rule-apparently first propounded by Salvatore Maranzano and later insisted upon by Lucky Luciano-was to prevent needless outbreaks of gang warfare.

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TOMMY Gun: Mobster weapon

The Thompson submachine gun-nicknamed the "Tommy Gun," "Chicago Piano," "Chopper" and "Typewriter"-was described by a Collier's magazine crime reporter: "the greatest aid to bigger and better business the criminal has discovered in this generation ... a diabolical machine of death ... the highest-powered instrument of destruction that has yet been placed at the convenience of the criminal element ...

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ICE PICK Murders: Efficient execution method

Long a favorite rub-out method of organized crime hitmen, the so-called ice pick kill is employed to make a murder victim's death appear to be the result of natural causes. Generally, the victim is cornered in some out-of-the-way place, and while two or three hitmen hold him, the executioner jams the ice pick through the eardrum into the brain. The pick produces only a tiny hole in the ear and a minute amount of bleeding, which can be carefully wiped away. After examining the corpse, doctors generally conclude that the cause of death was cerebral hemorrhage. It takes expert medical examination to discover the true cause, and, unfortunately, few localities can or do provide such expertise.

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CONSIGLIERE: Mafia "adviser"

The consigliere, often misunderstood to be the chief adviser to the Don, his super planner is a figurehead power, a sort of public relations gimmick invented by Lucky Luciano when he came to power in the early 1930's and organized the national crime syndicate. Luciano, in an attempt to establish peace within the organization, knew most trouble started with underlings either trying to get ahead or reacting to real or imaginary mistreatment. He ordered each crime family to establish the post of consigliere, a neutral middleman who would settle disputes within the family and act as a negotiator with the other families in disputes such as over territories.

Luciano also announced that the consigliere would act as a hearing officer, one who would have to clear any plan to knock off a Mafia member. If the consigliere after hearing the evidence decided the would-be victim was getting a bad rap, he could forbid the hit. This was to give the lower-rank members a sense of protection from the unjust acts of a family boss or any of his capos.

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ALIBIS

Today, some crime experts say, alibis are not considered important by crime big shots. It is generally conceded by the press, public and police that they seldom carry out their own executions. On the rare occasions when they do, usually out of personal pique, care is taken that the victim's corpse is never found, making time and place of the murder obscure, and the need for an alibi obsolete.

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